The Passenger

Chapter 7 is where the dueling plotlines of the novel intersect. The Kid pays Bobby a visit. Bobby knows who it is because of Alicia’s descriptions, and he uses the opportunity to probe for an answer on why Alicia died by suicide. He questions The Kid about Alicia, and for his part, The Kid, as is his wont, takes the conversation toward a broader scope. After antagonizing Bobby, The Kid wades into his typically speculative commentary, saying, “The world’s a deceptive place. A lot of things that you see are not really there anymore. Just the after-image of the eye” (279). The Kid is speaking about The Nature of Reality and what constitutes objective experience of that reality. He also indicates that because of the nature of time, and human understanding of it, a moment in time is just that. Once it is lived, it is gone from our objective experience. It vanishes into the world of human memory.

Other places in the novel also explore the function of memory and the apparent uselessness of it once we have passed from the Earth. The Kid continues with his speculations, saying, “She knew that in the end you really cant know. You cant get hold of the world. You can only draw a picture. Whether it’s a bull on the wall of a cave or a partial differential equation it’s all the same thing” (279). The Kid reveals to Bobby here the most probable cause for Alicia’s despondency. She recognizes a futility in searching for the meaning of life and she arrives at the conclusion that since there is no possible way of objectively discovering that meaning, there effectively is no meaning. The Kid suggests that Alicia’s primary problem was one of disbelief and the inability to accept it. He says, “no matter the magnitude of your doubts about the nature of the world you cant come up with another world without coming up with another you” (280). The novel posits that there is no alternative to the world we are born into, and that there is no possibility of escaping to some other level of existence. In a sense, this is an existentialist commentary that The Kid subsequently distances himself from as the conversation continues. Alicia was not able to make Søren Kierkegaard’s leap of faith; hence, she was consumed by despair.

Many of the novel’s characters function as vehicles for philosophical reflection, particularly The Kid and John Sheddan. Toward the end of Chapter 8, Bobby receives a letter that John sent before his death. Some of what John writes informs much of the novel. He says in the letter, “Wherever you debark was the train’s destination all along” (347). The train that we are on, in John’s metaphor, is taking each of us to our final destinations. In other words, death is inevitable. This creates an obvious tension in people and is the source of much despair in life. John says, “Suffering is a part of the human condition and must be borne. But misery is a choice” (347). Suffering, according to John, is the result of having the awareness that we are on the train and that it is taking us to the destination whether we like it or not. John also expresses a sentiment similar to what The Kid claims Alicia felt, saying, “I have never understood in the slightest why I was here” (347). John has pried at the question and, like Alicia, has ultimately concluded that there is no way of understanding it from a rationalist perspective, which he embodies in the novel. Ultimately, John chooses the opposite of what Alicia chooses. Instead of falling into a bottomless pit of despair, John tries to live a life “of good cheer” (347). He also implies that since “misery is a choice,” humans can choose its opposite in spite of the fact that an unsolvable mystery is at the heart of our lives. His comments recall the book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible’s Old Testament. Though humans seem doomed, we have the will to at the very least enjoy the time that we have.